News - Middle East: Israeli forces have ramped up their deadly airstrikes on northern Gaza, where United Nations officials have described the conditions as “apocalyptic.”

The Israeli airstrikes on northern Gaza have claimed the lives of at least 13 people since morning, Palestinian officials said.

In a joint statement, UN agency heads said the “the situation unfolding in north Gaza is apocalyptic.”

“The area has been under siege for almost a month, denied basic aid and life-saving supplies while bombardment and other attacks continue,” they said. 

The heads of the humanitarian, health, and other agencies warned that “the entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.”

The UN officials also warned that the humanitarian efforts could not keep up with the scale of the needs in northern Gaza.

“Basic, life-saving goods are not available. Humanitarians are not safe to do their work and are blocked by Israeli forces and by insecurity from reaching people in need,” they said. 

The officials called on Israel to “cease its assault on Gaza and on the humanitarians trying to help.”

Rachael Cummings from Save the Children International also said Sunday that “the convoys of food and water are being denied into the north.

“It is absolutely catastrophic,” she said. “People are being constantly bombarded with aerial attacks and of course, we know that the food and the water is not sufficient,” Cummings said. 

UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children, said earlier that more than 50 children were killed in the attacks on Jabalia in the north in the past 48 hours.

It said that “the horrific level of child deaths in North Gaza” opens yet “another dark chapter in one of the darkest periods of” Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian territory.

Source: Press TV